Stromness (Old Orkney)

An auctioneer's guide to Stromness (Old Orkney), 'the most remote distillery in the Kingdom'.

Stromness distillery was located on the south-western part of Mainland Orkney and operated between 1817 and 1928. When whisky historian Alfred Barnard visited in the 1880s, he remarked that it was 'the most remote distillery in the Kingdom', and the output was just 7000 gallons per year (at the time, neighbouring Highland Park produced 50000 gallons per year). The whisky was sold as 'Man O' Hoy', after one of the island's landmarks, and was renamed 'Old Orkney' when the distillery was reopened in 1878 by the MacPherson brothers after a period of closure. In the early 1900s, Stromness was acquired by J & J McConnell Ltd. who operated the distillery until economic conditions forced its closure in 1928. From there it was owned for a time by Booths Distilleries and was demolished in the 1940s.

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